Summer gas prices forecast to dip 1 cent

Eric Henry gases up his car in Sacramento, Calif. Drivers will get the slightest of breaks on gasoline prices this summer, according to the Energy Department. The national average price is forecast to fall — by just 1 cent — to $3.57 per gallon between April and September, the months when Americans do most of their driving.

Associated Press

NEW YORK

Drivers will get the slightest of breaks on gasoline prices this summer, according to the Energy Department.

The national average price is forecast to fall — by just 1 cent — to $3.57 a gallon between April and September, the months when Americans do most of their driving.

Still, that would be the lowest average summer price since 2010.

For the year, the department’s Energy Information Administration expects gasoline to average $3.45 a gallon, down from $3.51 last year and also the lowest since 2010.

World demand for oil is growing, but supplies are growing faster than demand, thanks to higher production in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere. That will keep a lid on the price of crude and gasoline.

The price of Brent crude, a benchmark used to price oil used by many U.S. refineries and the most important factor in gasoline prices, is forecast to fall 4 percent this year.

U.S. drivers are expected to burn slightly more gasoline than they did last year, according to the EIA. More people will drive more miles as the economy continues to improve, but they are driving more fuel-efficient cars. That will prevent gasoline demand from rising as fast as the number of miles driven.

The sudden return of supplies also could send prices lower. The average price of gasoline last summer was 5 cents lower than what EIA had forecast last spring.

Sieminski said that the amount of oil kept out of the market because of political unrest and logistical factors around the world is far higher now than in the past. Turmoil in Libya, Sudan and elsewhere is keeping about 2.5 million barrels of oil per day off the market, about 3 percent of world demand, up from 500,000 barrels historically, he said.

That has kept the price of Brent crude higher than anticipated in recent months, and it has led to slightly higher gasoline prices than forecast.